Police liaison bridging the gap

THE Chinchilla community has a new way to interact with police, after the town's first police liaison officer started work last month.

Taking up the new role is Robyn Jennings, who has lived and worked in Chinchilla for nine years.

Miss Jennings said she'd worked previously as a teacher aide in local schools and delivered various programs in the community.

She said her new job was to work in the community, between the people of Chinchilla and the police.

"I'll be... bridging that gap somewhat, building community relations between police and the community,” Miss Jennings said.

"Working more with the Indigenous community to hopefully sustain some programs later on down the track that engage our youth, work with the schools to improve, create more of an awareness of community policing (and) working with government and non-government agencies to improve access and equity for our community.

"It's basically, you're a community worker though you're working for the QPS and you're working for the community, but my thing is bridging the gap, and for our community to have a better understanding of what the QPS does, how they assist and how we're all there to help.

"Another thing is to improve community cohesion between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous community.”

Miss Jennings thought her previous work in schools and the community had set her up well for the task.

"Through my previous employment I did get to know a lot of the families, and that has been a huge help in making this job a bit easier, not saying it's easy easy, there's going to be challenges but as a community and the fact that we communicate effectively and openly it's that, those challenges should be something that we all work on together.”

And she emphasised she was there for everyone in the Chinchilla community.

"It's important that people know I'm not just here for the indigenous community, I'm here for the whole community and it's part of our commitment in the QPS to ensure that everyone's working together and building a healthy, positive relationship,” she said.

To get in contact with Miss Jennings, visit the Chinchilla Police Station.